The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 397
foolish to find fault with him merely because the promised punishment does not speedily overtake them. The sending of punishment is outside his province and lies entirely in the hand of God Who sends it whenever He thinks fit and opportune. Moreover, the sender of the punishment should also be the knower of the unseen. He should know fully the future of man, because he who does not possess the knowledge of what the future holds in its bosom is likely to punish a person who, being at present the enemy of truth, may be deserving of punishment today, but may be destined to effect a true reformation in himself tomorrow. So the sending of the punishment or the deferring thereof is God's own work. Towards the end of the Ruku' it is stated that when God alone knows the unseen, it is unwise not to preach the truth to a person who may appear to be an enemy of truth, because in the unlimited knowledge of God he may be destined to accept the truth at some future time. In the ninth Ruku' the falsity of polytheistic doctrines has been exposed by means of an argument which the Patriarch Abraham had with his people and which has been dealt with at some length in this Ruku'. The next two sections describe how God bestowed favours and blessings on Abraham and his descendants because they believed in God's Oneness and strove hard to establish it in the world. In the twelfth Ruku' we are told that the mission of God's Messengers never fails. Like rainwater, it gives fertility and freshness to a soil spiritually bleak and barren. The thirteenth Ruku' deals with the supreme subject that it is impossible to attain to God and have His true realization unless He reveals Himself to men. It is, therefore, necessary that Divine Messengers should appear time after time, because it is through them that God reveals Himself to the world. Believers are further admonished that though the beliefs and ideals of idolaters are false, they should have due regard for their susceptibilities when holding a discourse with them about their beliefs and doctrines. In the fourteenth Ruku', however, we are told that for the attainment of true faith, a corresponding wholesome change of heart is a sine qua non. Without such a change, even signs and miracles prove of no avail. In this connection some objections of disbelievers have been mentioned and refuted. The same subject is continued and developed in the next four sections (15-18) and the attention of believers is drawn to yet more foolish objections of disbelievers. In the nineteenth section a contrast is drawn between Islamic teaching, which answers and satisfies the demands of reason and justice, and the doctrines and practices of idolaters, which are based on neither reason nor argument. The latter are told that, in view of this contrast, they cannot legitimately deny the necessity of Divine revelation. In the last section we are told that the Quran has been revealed to raise and honour even those nations to whom no revealed Book has so far been sent, so that they may not feel low and debased before the People of the Book. 837